USB devices pose major security risk to industrial plants

Forget earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters. The real threat to industrial facilities comes in a much smaller form factor.

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(Image credit: Image Credit: EsaRiutta / Pixabay)

Forget earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters. The real threat to industrial facilities comes in a much smaller form factor.

Honeywell just released a report saying removable USB media devices pose a ‘significant, and intentional, cybersecurity threat’ to a wide array of industrial process control network.

The report says that almost half of all analysed USBs have had at least one file that was blocked due to a security issue. A quarter (26 per cent) of those detected were capable of wreaking serious havoc, causing operators to lose visibility, or control, of their operations.

All kinds of facilities are exposed, from refineries, to chemical plants and pulp-and-paper manufacturers everywhere. In roughly 15 per cent of the cases, IoT devices were under attack.

“The data showed much more serious threats than we expected, and taken together, the results indicate that a number of these threats were targeted and intentional,” said Eric Knapp, director of strategic innovation, Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security.

“This research confirms what we have suspected for years – USB threats are real for industrial operators. What is surprising is the scope and severity of the threats, many of which can lead to serious and dangerous situations at sites that handle industrial processes.”

TRITON and Mirai, as well as variants of Stuxnet were among the detected threats.